


Dance of Sabers

by Lady_JB



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama & Romance, F/M, Graphic Description, Intrigue, Political Alliances, Romance, Sexual Content, Skywalker Family Drama, Slow Burn, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-18 11:03:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16993830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_JB/pseuds/Lady_JB
Summary: "Why are you doing this?"She finally looked up from the floor, expecting to meet his eyes but instead only saw her own in the reflection of his mask."Sometimes you have to make up your mind of what you want and have the courage to set your heart on it. I know what I want, and I have the courage to match any knight."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this work is a guilty pleasure of mine that I've been toying around for a while. I have a sweet spot for historical fiction and political intrigue and placing it in the Star Wars universe just felt right. Comments/ suggestions are greatly appreciated!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this work is a guilty pleasure of mine that I've been toying around for a while. I have a sweet spot for historical fiction and political intrigue and placing it in the Star Wars universe just felt right. Comments/ suggestions are greatly appreciated!

The documents that sat in front of her were innocent enough- bill proposals to give to her father, reports, charity event invitations. All except for one, the more Arden looked at it, the more her stomach tied into a knot. _Why am I receiving threats?_ She flipped the paper over to the back hoping to see something she hadn’t noticed before, but nothing new.

 

_To the traitor Arden Grey,_

_We see what your family is doing, and we know who you are. Be careful where you go, we will be watching and waiting to kill you senate scums._

_The Unblind_

 

  
It could be her push to follow in her father’s footsteps to become a senator herself; perhaps it was the implication of nepotism. _Do they hate me?_  

 

Arden sat back in her dark wooden chair rubbing her dry green eyes. This was just the cherry she needed on top of the week she had been having. During the day, she did her best to look like the proper lady she was raised to be- her auburn hair meticulously pulled back into a series rope braids that tucked into an ornate bun, her dress modest yet fine quality, a smile on her face, and personality gentle. But on the inside, all she wanted was sleep. She wishes to the gods she could just have a night of dreamless sleep.

 

Every day for the past week all she could think about was her bed, but when evening came, and Alys, her lady in waiting had left her alone in her room, all she could do was force herself to stay awake because the dreams were becoming too much.

 

At first, the dreams started small, a dark hand helping her off the ground or her chasing after a small droid down a series of nondescript hallways. But recently it’s involved people she had never met before, felt feelings she had never experienced before.

 

Once, she saw two children being rushed down cellar steps by their mother, her voice was urgent, and her eyes panicked. Arden felt that panic as if it were her own, a panic that her babies were going to be killed. The mother closed the door, and the light was blocked by something be pulled on top of them, presumably a rug. The elder boy held onto the younger boy tighter, trying to both calm the younger and himself. There was a loud cracking sound of a door being broken in.

  
Last night, she saw a man filled with this uncontrollable fear of something imminent coming. He had a concoction of fear and sadness over pain, his family, and his freedom of choice ripped from him. He felt rushed there wasn't time to do anything, just watching this red light that meant his doom. The dreamland never acknowledged her, and she never saw what happened next, but she always woke up in a pool of sweat and tears, her heart racing and breaking at the same time.

 

The energy in the small office shifted as a wizened, white-haired woman, known as Lady Mira Grey, walks in elaborately dressed in the finest of embroidered silks carrying a jeweled cane in her left hand.

 

“Arden!” the older woman says, exasperated. Arden looks up at her grandmother and examined her face. It was stern, but her eyes betrayed her anger with concern and warmth. She stood there for a moment, taking her granddaughter in before crossing the room and raising a spotted hand to Arden’s forehead. She smelled of lavender and honey.

 

“Are you not feeling well, my darling?”

 

Arden leaned her head into her grandmother’s hand, it was warm and familiar, and she desperately wished she could absorb some of her grandmother’s strength through her touch. “I’m just tired, is all.”

 

Her grandmother moves her hand from her forehead to the papers on the desk, stopping at the threat Arden had been reading. Mira Grey’s lips tighten and eyes narrow as she reads it.

 

“Who gave this to you?”

 

“I’m not sure; it was delivered in my mail this morning.”

 

“Have you shown your father?”

 

“Not yet.

  
“Is this the first one? Is this why you’ve missed my tea?”

 

_The tea!_ Arden had completely forgotten about the tea her grandmother had arranged with a few other lady senators and senator’s wives.

 

 “No, this is the first one. I just haven’t been sleeping well, lately. Maybe I’m getting sick?”

 

“Hmph. I think your father is pushing you too hard.” She plopped the letter down on the desk.

 

“Papa doesn’t push me any harder than you push him.”

 

“That’s different!” She pounds the end of her cane to help illustrate her indignation. “Your father took after his father- an oaf. A strong oaf with love for his people, but an oaf nonetheless. You though, you take after my side of the family - opinionated, cunning, survivors,” a twinkle glistened in her eye “it’s why the Force smiled on our family.”

 

Yes, Arden had grown up hearing the stories. Her family lines, distant and so old it’s impossible to know if they held any truth, boasted of not one but two different force users. Both in the times if the Old Republic, both fought and died in the name of their cause.

 

When she was little, she used to beg to hear bedtime stories of the Jedi Knight Meetra Surik, one of her supposed ancestors. She loved the fact it was a girl, and in the times before she had to respond to the societal pressures for her to be a lady, she would play in the streets with the other children of her homeworld, Chandrilla, pretending to be Meetra, wielding a lightsaber made of wood. Those times were long gone now.

 

“You should go to your room dear, get some sleep. I’ll send Osha up with one of my sleeping tonics. You won’t dream a thing.”

 

“I can’t; the Senate Banquet is tonight-”

 

“ _You_ don’t get to tell _me_ no.” she used her can again to punctuate her words and waved her hand dismissively “Now off with you, your exhaustion is making me exhausted, and your puffy eyes are making me depressed!”

 

Arden’s mouth opened and closed, she knew better than to argue with the older woman, so instead, she just stood from her desk and started collecting the letters.

 

“You can leave those. I’m going to have a long conversation with your father, and we’ll come up with what to do about them.”

 

* * *

 

 

  
Her grandmother was true to her word. No sooner had she changed into her nightshift did Osha entered with a curtsy, placing a tray that carried a bottle of thick red liquid and a cup of steaming hot tea. The latter probably being a reminder of the afternoon tea she had missed. Mira Grey might be a tiny doll of an older woman, but she was full of cheek, and every action was freighted with levels of meaning.

 

“Lady Grey sent this up for you. Take one spoonful and should work within the first ten minutes.”

 

She turned the blankets down on Arden’s bed, noticing it hadn’t been done and stood to wait.

 

“Is there anything else you need, miss?”

 

“Oh, no, you’re dismissed. Thank you, Osha.”

 

Arden crawled into her bed and reached for the bottle, tipping it so she could watch the thick liquid crawl back down the side of it. She may be twenty-four years old, but her attitude towards the taste of medicine hadn’t changed since she was a child. She unraveled the glass spoon that was tied to the bottle and opened the etched crystal lid of the jar, and she wrinkled her nose as the bitter smell hit her and took the correct dosage.

 

_Please let this be a dreamless sleep_. At this point, she was begging, but she wasn’t sure to who.

 

* * *

 

_There was a girl not much younger than herself walking curiously down a dimly lit hallway followed by a repair droid. She turns to her left, and a door opens, her curiosity grows as she walks through it, it’s as if something is calling out to her. Arden can feel it too tugging at her heart like a magnet. The girl bends over and opens a chest, the magnet pull is stronger, and she reaches in and touches the hilt lightsaber. As soon as her skin touch the hilt, Arden begins to see this girl experience a series of visions. A flickering blue-lit hallway. A man is placing a hand on a droid in the smoky shadows of a fire. A red lightsaber and a group of men in black standing in the rain. A little girl is screaming up at the sky in the desert. A snowy forest another red blade- Arden and this girl fall to the ground away from the ruby light back into the room with the chest. The girl looks over her shoulders right at Arden with her eyes full._

 

 Arden wakes in her bed. Her skin is damp with sweat, and it had grown dark while she slept. She uses the light of the city leaking in from her window as a nightlight to take in her surroundings. Someone had been in there. There were a couple of skirts littering the floor, her perfumes and makeup scattered across her vanity. Now alarmed she hops out of bed.

 

“Hello?”

 

No answer

 

“Anyone there?”

 

She could feel someone standing in her room. She could swear there was someone there, but there no one to be seen. That is until her grandmother came rushing through the door accompanied by Osha and Alys.

 

“Oh good, you’re up on your own. Get dressed, immediately.”

 

Arden looked around the room, and it had to be past the middle of the night at this point. “What is going on?”

 

“We’ll talk on the way; we’re meeting your father on the ship in ten minutes.”

 

Alys exits the closet with a white and pink chiffon dress in her arms, presenting it more to Mira than to Arden.

 

“No, not that one, dear.” Mira dismisses with a wave of her hand and points at Arden’s hair with her other one while looking at Osha. A gesture for the lady in waiting to do something with it. Osha starts to pull her hair out of the frizzy, slept-in braids and rivers of auburn waves began to fall over Arden’s shoulders.

 

Alys walks out of the closet, this time with a heavy velvet emerald green gown.

 

“No, no something more… impactful.” She paused for thought “The long sleeve, navy satin one- the one with the plunging neckline.”

 

The young lady-in-waiting disappeared into Arden’s closet once more, and Mira is now helping Osha pull Arden’s hair out of braids. This is unusual. Grandmother has never broken decorum like this before. Arden’s heart started to beat faster as the two women finished pulling her hair out of the elaborate braids and brush the frizz out.

 

“I don’t know what we’re going to do with this, leave it down I suppose. We don’t have time for much else.” Osha nodded in agreement and grabbed a jeweled headpiece from Arden’s vanity and held it up for Mira’s approval.

 

“Yes, perfect.”

 

Alys returned with the gown, and all three of the women helped Arden slip into the dress just as a droid rolls into the room and beeps, Mira sighs. “We’ll have to fasten you while we walk. We need to leave. Now.”

 

They made a funny sight, Alys walking behind Arden fastening the buttons as the four of them and a droid walked as quickly as their gowns would allow them to the docking station of their home. When the entered the elevator, Alys finished the dress and Mira selected the roof. Arden looked at her with curiosity, _Are we not going to the docking bay?_

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“We don’t have time; the ship is waiting for us here.”

 

She was right. There was a ship just off their roof, only it wasn’t their ship, it was a Xi-class light shuttle with a First Order soldier greeting them at the ramp. As her gaze lifted from the soldier to the top of the ramp, she was surprised to see her father in the doorway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The blue dress Arden wears is inspired by this [Paulo Sebastian design](http://paolosebastian.com/collections/2015-aw-couture/#/image/14)


	2. Chapter 2

A total of nine chairs and a wide passenger area became visible as the ladies were ushered up the ramp.  Senator Atlas Grey stands arms open to his only daughter. He was a tall, plump man with dark hair that had mostly silvered. 

 

 “I’m so happy you made it!” he embraces Arden in a tight hug, not willing at first to let her go. At this moment life seemed so precious.

 

“Will someone _please_ tell me what is going on?” she asks and Atlas looks over to Mira.

 

“You didn’t tell her?”

 

“Oh sure, because orchestrating this wasn’t enough for me to handle.” Mira bites back. Arden’s brow furrows in confusion, eyes darting to every person in her little party, begging for answers.

 

“Arden, love, maybe you should sit down?” her father gestured to a seat behind him

 

The First Order soldier interrupted by stepping in from the entryway behind them as the ramp was retracted.  

 

“Senator Grey, can I get a confirmation that this is everyone?”

 

“Yes, this is it. We’re free to leave.”

 

The soldier nodded and retreated back to the cockpit. It wasn’t until this moment that Arden realized we were on a First Order shuttle _with_ First Order soldiers. Her stomach began to twist in knots as the worst thoughts flooded her mind.

 

“Now, don’t you fret love, everything is going to be okay.” Atlas began, setting a firm hand on Arden’s right shoulder. 

 

Mira scoffed from her chair “Don’t sugarcoat it, Atlas, tell the girl the truth. We have accepted an alliance with the First Order.”

 

Atlas stared at his mother, no words came to mind. He hadn’t prepped for this.

 

“We’ve been offered the opportunity to protect and advance Chandrila in ways it’s never seen.”

 

She moved from her father's reach, repulsed. “What?!” Arden’s voice was a stern whisper but in her head, she was screaming.  “We have always been a part of the Republic! Do you think this is something history will forget about?”

 

“Mothma’s rule did nothing but sow problems for Chandrila, she thought with her heart, not her head.” Atlas’ eyes pleaded with his daughter. “The Order has had their eye on us since her passing, we decided we wanted that eye to be a friendly one.”

 

“We can’t just give up and break treaties like this!”

 

By this time, Mira was making herself a drink “I told your father we had no business entering this war, that we were better at improving our homeworld through the Republic instead. But ever since your father vowed to bring security, peace, and order in the galaxy- or whatever flavor this New Order gives it these days- we’re in past our waists. So here we are to see things through.” she took a sip of her strong drink and walked towards a viewing window of the ship. They had entered space and were traveling quickly away.

 

“Come here, child. You should see what we’re helping to do.”

 

Arden looked between her grandmother and her father.

 

“Mother, I hardly think this is necessary.”

 

“No, your daughter should see the wheat we’ve helped sow. She needs to know what we now must expect of her.” She held her arm out and Arden entered her embrace as she wrapped her arm around her shoulders in a side hug and escorted her to the viewing window.

 

At first, there was nothing, just the stars traveling past them so quickly that Hosnian Prime looked like a small rubber ball. Then, suddenly,  a bright red light carved its way through the darkness of space past the ship maybe 500 yards from where Arden and Mira stood. 

 

“Is that?”

 

No sooner had she gotten that question out of her mouth, did the light strike the planet they had just left. It took just a breath's worth before anything happened, but then the planet lit up like a ball of cotton on fire. She didn’t know if it was the sound of the planet or the breaking of her heart that she heard as she watched the pieces fly away disintegrate. 

 

Arden reached for her chest, _Is my heart_ _still there?_   Surely it couldn’t go on from the anguish, fear, and guilt she felt at this very moment. It was as if her emotions were tangled with the feeling of every souls’ death in the system. 

 

Her eyes were ripped away from the scene as Alys fell to the floor with a scream from where she had previously stood. That is exactly what Arden wanted to do, but instead, she ran to the woman in comfort. She had to something, anything for someone and, at this moment, Alys needed her strength, even if it was just an illusion.

 

“How could you do this?” the question was challenged to her father.

 

 “Do you think if I hadn’t that this wouldn’t have happened? If I hadn’t played my cards we would have been on that planet right now. I protected you.”

 

She glanced at her grandmother who was standing still at the viewing window, her hand had not left her mouth and Arden could swear tears welled up in her eyes. Arden's gaze shifted down at Alys in her arms who's shaky wails had already silenced, her tears had dried in an eerie glaze of shock.

 

_He had a concoction of fear and sadness over pain, his family, and his freedom of choice ripped from him. He felt rushed there wasn't time to do anything, just watching this red light that meant his doom._

 

She remembered her dream, felt those feelings again and they mirrored how she would have felt. Had that dream come true? Did her family have a hand in murdering that man she had seen in a dream?

 

She looked back at Atlas

 

“Yes, but at what cost?”

**Author's Note:**

> The blue dress Arden wears is inspired by [this Paulo Sebastian design](http://paolosebastian.com/collections/2015-aw-couture/#/image/14)


End file.
